Wisconsin supreme court election amazing result

Justice David Prosser, left, and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg taking part in a debate on Wisconsin Public Television in Madison, in the runup to a close-fought electoral contest for a place on Wisconsin's supreme court, which has taken on greater significance in the wake of the passage of Governor Scott Walker's anti-labour union legislation in the state. Photograph: Michael Sears/AP Photo
Michael Sears/AP

In a race still too close to call, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg took a paper-thin lead over Justice David Prosser in the state supreme court race early Wednesday, capping a race marked by massive voter turnout, Governor Scott Walker's union bargaining plan, and record spending by outside interest groups.

As of 11.30am, The Associated Press had results for all but 1 of the state's 3,630 precincts and Kloppenburg had taken a 235 vote lead after Prosser had been ahead most of the night by less than 1,000 votes.

That one precinct would appear to be in the Town of Lake Mills, where town officials were meeting to count the last of the paper ballots.

The Jefferson County Clerk's officer reported that Prosser picked up only two votes in the electronic vote in Lake Mills and that 24 handwritten ballots were not yet counted. The results of a single township in Jefferson County should be known by about 1pm Wednesday after local officials finish examining votes from Tuesday's election.

About 220 votes were cast in Town of Lake Mills – seemingly not enough for Prosser to make up the votes he would need to defeat Kloppenburg.

As you'll recall, it's a nonpartisan election, but Kloppenburg tends toward the liberal side of things, Prosser the conservative. He is the fourth member of a 4-3 conservative majority on the state's high court. She would flip the balance leftward, as decisions surely approach having to do with Governor Scott Walker's "repair" bill. A defeat of a sitting justice, the paper notes, is a "rare" thing. One lost recently, in 2008. Before that, it had been 41 years since it happened.

Who knows how these things turn out? But recent history proves a point amply: it's one hell of a lot better to be ahead by 200 votes than behind by 200 votes. Think Al Franken, Jim Webb and, of course, George W Bush. A couple hundred votes can be surprisingly hard to make up, even when a staggering 1.5 million votes have been cast, unless there was a basic counting mistake somewhere.

In other Wisconsin news, the Democratic candidate mauled the GOP candidate for county executive, 61-39%. That's the job Scott Walker previously held. Think the people of Milwaukee County were sending a message?

It proves that there are states in this country where strong Tea Party and liberal elements coexist and success is basically a matter of which side is angrier and more motivated to vote. That's in off-year elections. In presidential years, Wisconsin is very likely a stable blue state, as I've long said. Walker is just making it more so.